Now I have to learn to weld!

[slydog]

You guys are costing me money. I thought finding a local TSC store was all I had to worry about, then I find this thread. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif I have been wanting to learn to weld for a few years, and contemplated buying a mig. I am considering taking a welding class in Memphis at the Wm R Moore school, as I can't find them offered anywhere else. Would yall recommend going this route for someone just starting out and wishing to learn to weld? I'm not looking for a new career, I just want to learn how to do it so I can make general repairs, and possibly fabricate some of this niffty stuff you guys are always coming up with. My older brother was a sheet metal worker his whole life, and I had helped him at times with some of his projects, and have burned a few rods on his arc welder, but most of the time I just watched him work. I would get him to teach me, but he died last year (a year ago today actually). It has always been something I wish I could do.
Any thoughts or suggestions on learning?

Ken

 

[JerryG]

<font color="blue">I am considering taking a welding class in Memphis at the Wm R Moore school, as I can't find them offered anywhere else.</font>
Ken,
You can try at a Vo-Tech or as Arkansas calls them now, a Technical Institute. Most of them in AR have night welding classes.

 

[hazmat]

I'm taking a night class at my local technical high school. It is great. 60 hours for $200. You need to bring your own helmet, gloves, and jacket/old shirt.

I highly recommend an autodarkening helmet. Makes learning that much easier. I have a miller helmet.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

I was exactly where you are a couple years ago. I took a couple welding classes at the local adult education extension (one arc class followed by a mig class). I have a little Hobart 'Handler' mig welder. I have to say I couldn't be happier that I took the classes and learned a little about welding.

Even with the two certifications in arc and mig I do not consider myself 'a welder' in any way. I am confident enough to do a lot of things for myself now and I don't have to bother friends to do them for me. I think the highest compliment I was paid by the instructor was his statement that he wouldn't hesitate to drive behind or beside me at 80 mph if I was pulling a trailer I'd built on a hitch I'd built and installed. It made me feel good to hear that. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

My advice would be to take the welding classes and take arc then take mig. Here it was a requirement to do so and I didn't understand why until I was in there. Arc taught me how to weld and how welds work and why. Mig taught me how to make a good, strong mig weld. Without the first, I never would have appreciated hte second.

Good luck with your new skills. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[MMM]

That's the way to learn welding. Back when I took course, oxy/acet first, smaw next, and MIG was "other welding" and was mostly aluminum. I've got a wire feed and ac/dc stick, the MIG gets some use for project work, but repair work is soley stick except for thin material. Stick has better penetration, more tolerant of dirt/rust, and is only choice in tight spots or wind (don't have flux core).

 

[SPIKER]

i agree with others, take you're class FIRST then once you know what you like to weld, get you're self a welding machine which fits to you're needs rather than not knowing what you are looking for in a welding machine...

c;asses 1st then buy after you know how to weld, besides you may learn that you HATE welding or can't weld for #$@% /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

MarkM

Mark M

 

[Rch]

TBN like welding forum /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

The above link has been invaluable for me, a newby with an ancient history of welding. Sign-up, I've never got any junk mail and, like TBN, it sorts what's read etc.

 

[mark777]

Yes, Talk to Inspector 507

good luck, Mark

 

[Inspector507]

Slydog,
I am ready to start course #2 tomorrow. The first course was stick and MIG combined. It was great. Tomorrow's course is listed as MIG and Flux core, but I have a feeling it will continue as stick and MIG, which is fine with me. I need all the help I can get with stick. All the students in course #1 are returning for course #2. There is a possibility of a TIG course in Jan, we'll see if I take that.
We are using different equipment than I have here at home. My Arc welder is AC only, in class we've used DC only so far. The MIG I have is 110V, in class we use a 480V unit. Makes a big difference in your final outcome.
We were supposed to go through a "break and bend test" at the end of course #1, but the shear was not working /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif so I have no idea how my welds really ended up.
Take any course locally you can find at the VoTech schools, or Adult Ed, Community Ed.

edit begins here.....
It has been invaluable for me.......I can look at what I've done and tell you why it didn't turn out right /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[markct]

well i can only offer this advice, the best way to learn is by actualy welding, i started welding when i was about 12 or so and believe me for the first couple months things i welded were not very pretty or good, but after a while i learned to make some realy good welds, alot i learned from reading books about it, and most i just learned from trying it, i will say that it was a long time before i could make a weld upside down or verticaly, for a long time i "cheated" and welded traveling down a verticle joint, thats not the proper way to make a strong weld, but then after practicing on some scrap clamped up verticaly i got alot better at it, i still am not a welding expert by any means, but i can do some decent welds, and have had very very few things break on a weld joint, if you have been following the "dozer root rake" thread you can see some of the welding i did in those pics, almost all the welding on the rake was done in a flat position, but the brackets i welded onto the blade of the dozer had to be done verticaly of course, they came out okay, not a real pretty weld but not a bad weld either, so basicly my best advice is to just practice and practice, a welding course is a great way to start out im sure, i cant realy say cause the only welding training i ever had was a little bit of mig welding in trade school, and by then i knew how to stick weld so mig was real easy, but go to your welding course and try it out, i doubt by the end of a few evening classes you will be making real nice welds, but dont get discouraged, it just takes practice, and when you go to buy a welder try and get an AC/DC machine, i learned to weld on my fathers little AC buzzbox and when i was 14 and bought my lincoln idealarc 500 amp AC/DC machine i found that DC was far better than AC current for almost all jobs,a much easier to strike and control arc and better overhead welding, not please dont let me mislead you and think that i am saying you need a giant welder like mine, a little AC/DC machine is perfect for 99 percent of stuff, only thing is when doing heave fabrication with multiple pass welds like my root rake project a small welder wouldnt have the ability to run continuously since many homeowner welders are only 20 percent duty cycle, but thats more than enough for almost all fabrication, so good luck, and once you learn to weld you will wonder how you ever lived without it